We bought this home coffee roaster at an auction for way
too much money. It's very old but cheaply made from riveted tin steel .
The drum is stamped "23" and the base is stamped "18",
leading me to believe these were stock numbers or size numbers of a standard
factory- or workshop-produced item. It seems like something you might have
ordered from a Sears Roebuck catalog in the 1880s. I am sure it was also
sold as a nut roaster (peanuts, chestnuts, etc.).

Notice the old wire repair of the cast iron grill...

I am hoping these photos will inspire some of you in building
your own home roaster. A hibachi and a tin can would be the majority of
your materials list to produce a modern day equivalent of this device! We
invite you to crank our old roaster a few times when you come visit us in
Emeryville.

So simple ... so effective.

We also have a gas roaster that was made in Brooklyn New
York in the 20s or 30s:

If you look closely, you can see the porcelin gas shutoff
valve on the left side of the picture.

To the left is a combination drum/stovetop pan roaster
that we picked up a while back. This has the smallest capacity of all our
roasters, probably only 1/3 lb.

Here is a wonderfu copper home roaster circa late 19th
c. that was offered at auction. This one is not in my collection, but I
do have quite a few more that I just had to pack up when we moved from Ohio
back to California, and I have not yet unpacked and photographed!

Here is a stovetop roast pan from the 30's or later. It
is made in Italy, probably used in some Italian enclave in the US for
many years (its entirely charred) since we all know that a good Italian
doesnt forsake ANYTHING Italian, nomater how much time it takes away from
the hustle & bustle, or how outdated and anachronistic it is. I imagine
the only reason a kid from California (me) ever got hold of this thing
was through the untimely death of some poor old Italian soul! I am taking
good care of it though...

So do we use any of these roasters? Well, no ... not when
there are new (and rust-free!) roasters around....